Why are they removing features that were in Windows 8.0? First System images then custom Libaries not being shown by default and now WEI.

WEI was a good feature at first, now it's rather useless since no app developer or game developer use it. Also, unless you're running a P4, you're bound to have a relatively high score regardless. My rig is almost 6 years old at this point, and scores 7.2's across the board, the only thing keeping the score down to a 5.9 is my HDD.

one use apparently for WEI is its role in determining HDCP. At least that's what I am gathering after troubleshooting 8.1's refusal to play premium cable channels in Windows Media Center via my CableCard / HDHomeRun Prime Tuner.

According to the logs, WEI runs during the Digital Cable Readiness Test. Tracing led to the report results, and they are most curious:

In my case, it's the GPU and HDD (both of which are known porkers - AMD HD5450 and WD Caviar Green 1TB, respectively), and the system (desktop) otherwise dates back to (don't faint) the Vista era.

Motherboard - ASUS P5G41M-LX2/GB

CPU - Intel Core2Quad Q6600

RAM - 4 GB DDR2-800 (2 GB x2)

heuristik - the only way you are going to NOT get fail is to use an HDMI connection, because PASS ratings require an HDCP-supported connection between either HDHomeRun and PC or PC and display. If you are using DVI between PC and display, you'll be boarding the FAILboat. I have more CPU than you do, but less GPU - but when I connect my Tivo Premiere to the LAN, I get PASS (due to my PC display being connected via HDMI).

By the by, is there a version of the 8.1 Premiere with Media Center *included*?

HD photo slideshows in the old Photo Gallery were also dependent on WEI. The newer Photo Gallery 201x has the crappy Movie Maker engine with low quality slideshows but high quality slideshows can be enabled with a reg tweak (and if WEI passed). Now no more. You're stuck with low quality ones.

Microsoft should licence the 3DMark technology and build it into the Windows platform. Publishers could then use those numbers to offer more accurate minimum and recommended specs, with scores grouped into categories based upon performance and features (VRAM, DX11, etc). The problem with WEI is that it was useless from the get-go, as it wasn't at all representative of overall system performance. It didn't help consumers make informed decisions, which is what it was intended for. Microsoft could even offer visual tests—like those in 3DMark and not dissimilar to the Direct3D tests included with DX—and hype up the gaming side. It would certainly help distance itself from the criticism associated with Windows 8.

I think the only reason that Microsoft hasn't included features in Windows aimed at gamers is because of its focus on the Xbox brand. In fact Microsoft seems to have gone out of its way to undermine PC in order to protect the Xbox - it killed off the Flight Simulator, Age Of Empires and MechWarrior brands, while deliberately undermining / scrapping PC versions of Halo, Gears Of War and Halo Wars and interfering with creative talents like Chris Roberts. Making Halo 2 Vista only was ridiculous, especially given the two and a half year delay from the Xbox version and shocking quality of the port.

Microsoft needs to stop treating PC users as second class citizens, whether it be in respect to the Xbox or tablets.

I liked the WEI score, as it gave me a simple metric when comparing PCs at stored like Best Buy, in fact, it helped me when I bought my laptop in April when comparing it against the score of my old laptop that it replaced.

It was a very good idea in theory but it just was never taken seriously by developers. Not to mention it was ultimately useless since even if your PC matched the score the game recommended you needed, it was no guarantee it would even run. It had potential though, could have really simplified system requirements and made seeing if your machine could run a game very easy and simple.

I used it for the details window that you could go to, and which showed information like VRAM that normally electronics stores wouldn't advertise. I'd go to each computer I was interested in buying in the showroom and bring up the details window in order to compare them.

Of course, in recent years, a lot of vendors have disabled desktop access and have instead displayed a custom app that displayed the computer specs, which wasn't helpful to me either.